I recall Genius was hot, hot, hot way back when. Crazy that it was sold for less than 100M.
The free money bubble sets your value horizon to weird levels.
I remember hard solutions being worth something, not bro apps. Now I'm actually not that grumpy. This happens in every industry, I wish everybody involved well (I regret calling it a bro app, I'm sure there is way more involved than I am seeing, but it fits here in terms of functionality), markets are fuzzy, I don't get to make the evaluations, prices don't reflect material value but market etc. - I'm just trying to figure out my INTJness and how people cannot see this coming.
"Genius.com is going to be the Internet Talmund" and a unicorn - what? Based on what?
WeWork/Fab.com etc. etc.
For every nine "how did they not see that coming"s, you'll get one "how did no one see that opportunity" eg. your Facebooks, Airbnbs, etc.
Song lyrics websites are one of the last remnants of the collaborative 'old web', where people uploaded information simply for the enjoyment of others, with no expectation of monetizing beyond easily blockable banner ads. Seeing "genius.com" links go straight to the top of Google was disheartening because it reflected the opposite spirit.